Thyme

My whole goal today was to get everything done and start writing by 7:30 a.m., and I did it just exactly at that time. Do you feel like your whole day is just racing against the clock? Or is it more runnin’ against the wind, because you’re Bob Seger reading my blog?

I have deadlines all day, and I find myself nervously looking at the time. Can I really get 60 pages done by 10:00? The answer is always no, not if I want to do it well. But I get it done by 10:00. I do not miss deadlines.

I go home for lunch, and nervously ask my Google Home for the time repeatedly. Google Home is so sick of me. Can I have lunch, play fetch with Blu (and also the dog. Otherwise the neighbors are certainly having a field day looking over here) and eat and get back in an hour?

The answer is no. But I try.

I finally don’t have to look at the time is once I’m home for the night, and so I DON’T look at it, until I do and it’s always later than I want it to be. Mother of GOD how is it already 11:00? Is this any way to live? It is not. But I am not a millionaire, and I think at this point even millionaires look at the time.

Why were we born in the rush era? But not the band. Although technically we are alive during the Rush era. But I try to ignore that.

However, as someone who had a panic attack during a massage and who lies on the beach thinking anxious thoughts on the inside, even if I were independently wealthy and didn’t have to BE places at certain TIMES and so on, I’d still find a way to be nervous about it.

Sigh. Let’s look at pictures. I feel like I haven’t put in any pictures lately. Oh! And while we’re waiting for them to upload, my boss, crnt., is getting her Stitch Fix today! Stay tuned for Stitch Fix voting tomorrow!

Yesterday when I was racing against time and runnin’ against the wind at lunch, I was making a salmon salad, and Mr. Assafrass, over here, immediately jumped on the counter because he has to be right up in everything I do. I was very nervous about what kind of ecstatic fit he’d have when I got out the salmon portion of my lunch, so I … hunched around it to add the salmon. I looked up to see if he had a napkin tied around his neck, but no.

He was munching happily on my avocado. I HOPE it’s poisonous to cats. I’m PRAYING it is.

I accidentally took this while in line at the grocery store, where, ironically, I was buying avocados. I clearly have a deviated septum, so why can’t I get a free nose job?

The only other picture I have since this weekend is a screenshot I took of a man on Tinder who went by the handle “Mr. Goodbar,” and I feel like he missed the point of that book.

Oh, guess who just jumped up on the desk, here. Is it Assafrass himself? My other cats seem like such a delight now in comparison. Whose idea was it to get a goddamn kitten?

It’s 7:45 now, and I’d better leave for work before I’m late. I’m old and strong and I’m still runnin’ against the wind.

I felt an obligation to be on time or early right up until we moved to Guadalajara. And made the mistake of applying that logic to a social event we were invited to. After 12 years in Latin America,I try my best to be timely, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

I am a stickler for being on time, and I do wear a watch. But I’m not anxious about it. I always feel like I have a general idea what time it is in my head. Also my life is essentially the same from one day to the next. As long as I get up on time, I can pretty much ignore the clock. However, I keep my calendar on my phone and have to set reminders or I would never remember to even look at it.

I am such a clock-watcher! I even have a clock sitting on my kitchen table. Never mind that I only have to turn my head slightly to see the clock on the microwave, turn all the way around to see the one on a kitchen wall, or, heaven forbid, get my butt up and read the clock on the stove. Let me forget to wear my watch when I leave the house, and I’m all a tither. My daughter makes fun of me. She doesn’t even own a watch. I don’t know how anyone can live that way.

If I don’t have my watch on, I feel naked. Plus, it’s the most expensive piece of jewelry I own so hell yes I’m gonna wear it. When the battery on my old watch would die, I’d still wear it until I could get to the jewelers to get a new battery. Luckily, my new watch is self-winding although sometimes, it does fall behind. And I just noticed the date is wrong on it, thanks to February.

I just bought myself a new Timex watch last week at Walmart. I have misplaced the old one and not having one made me crazy when I was out. The indiglo (light up) part was dying and the band pinched. This new one has a looser band, a bigger face and numbers and a mother of pearl face. I didn’t know it was indiglo also until I got it home. I am delighted with it. It’s a lot of happiness for forty-five bucks. I have a phone with the time but it is so much more convenient to just look at my wrist as oppossed to dragging out my phone. Now get off my damn lawn.

I think we all stress out about time and deadlines and “What if” and “How can I” more than we should. I try not to, but I can’t make myself calm down. I envy people who are very relaxed and not worried about anything.

Someone please tell me how I can get my name and email to stick. It used to but now I have to put it in each time.

I can certainly identify. I had a massage last month as a treat to myself for sticking with my job until the downsizing got me, instead of bailing to another job. Let them kick me out, I thought, and pay me on my way out the door. So, after a year of looking over my shoulder for someone telling me my job is done, when they finally did, I got a massage. I spent the 90 minutes with this thought pattern: “This is amazing. I wish I could afford to do this regularly. I bet this is almost over. I wonder how much time is left. This is amazing. I bet it’s almost over. I wonder how much time is left.”

I’m glad I’m not alone in this time watching anxiety. I try hard not to, but it seems like there’s always some sort of deadline or time by which I have to have something done. Even on vacation I’m always worried about running late or missing something. I’m sure I’m a joy to be around, no wonder I’m single.

I’m not so much a time watcher since I’m retired, unless I have an appointment or meeting, then I am. I do try to check my calendar each evening to make sure there’s not a place I need to be the next day. This week has been nice, no appointments or meetings, the next two weeks are crammed full, so I will be a clock watcher. It does make me nervous, especially where the appointment is on the other side of Atlanta, which could take 45 minutes to two hours to drive. I love Milhous!
Tee

DG, I’ve been to Savannah several times. The downtown is historic and interesting with lots of good places to eat. The last time I was there we were on Tybee Island for my niece’s wedding at the lighthouse. We loved it out there, but it is about 20-30 minutes from Savannah.

From Atlanta Airport to Savannah? Depends on the traffic and the time of day you arrive. It could take you an hour to travel 20 miles on I-75S because of the traffic. Once you are about 20-25 miles south of the airport, traffic should improve. Stay on the interstate, rather than taking an alternate route that will probably be just as congested and take you just as long, which will be more like a bus route. It should only take you about four and one-half hours once you are past the bumper to bumper traffic.

Oh I come from a family of anxious clock watchers but oddly not everyone got the gene. My dad and one of his sisters and I all have it but some of his siblings and my brother don’t have it! Ironically I married a non-clock watcher and I am always lying and telling him we have to be someplace way before we do.

I also write in a deadline based environment and am always watching the clock, the calendar and trying to remember what time it is in China. Fun times as my math is like yours. Must be a thing with English majors….

I am an anxious watcher of time. I am currently stressed because my son is still home and he really needs to have left for school before now. He doesn’t think so but I do. I mean what if there’s traffic. Or an accident. Or his truck breaks down. That’s my brain and my family hates it. Ok, need to go and announce the time to my child before I completely explode.

Quick question, and loving your blog. I’m wondering if you do any freelance editing? I’m just starting a new book contract this week for a fifth edition of an ongoing book about broadcasting. I am a friend and colleague of Jo Maeder. With best wishes, Valerie Geller http://www.beyondpowerfulradio.com